Overcoming Your Fear of Public Speaking: 3 Essential Tips

Public speaking, it’s the number one fear in the world. Even though a lot of people have glossophobia (the fear of public speaking), I believe that most people don’t truly understand it, which is a problem. If you don’t understand something it might be harder to handle it. That is why I will explain to you what the fear is, where it comes from and how to handle it.

Public speaking is the number one fear in the present moment. People might think that fear is just something from the modern ages, but it truly isn’t. Even the famous Roman orator Cicero, considered one of history’s greatest public speakers, wrote extensively about the art of oratory in works like De Oratore. He acknowledged that even skilled speakers, such as himself, often experienced anxiety before addressing a crowd.

But what makes public speaking so scary?

The fear of public speaking is ultimately the fear of failing at the moment, you might not want to fail because it involves your grade, people you care about, being judged or experiencing the same negative moment or emotions that you’ve experienced before. We are scared because of what’s at stake.

What happens to your body during public speaking?

It might also be important to know what your body goes through when you speak in public. You might wonder why you get all red, why your heart starts racing, and why your hands and/or feet shake.

The reason is the amygdala. The amygdala is a part of your brain which activates when it feels like you’re in danger, which occurs when you speak in public or before if you think about speaking in public.

When the amygdala activates, it activates the sympathetic nervous system. That is basically the fight-or-flight response of your body. You then release hormones. The two that are probably causing you to be uncomfortable are epinephrine (adrenaline) and cortisol (the stress hormone). These cause the shaking, the racing heartbeat etc. Your body does this because of our history as humans. When our ancestors used to see for example a lion. We had to choose: fight or flight. The adrenaline and cortisol could help us, as it advances our muscles and alertness.

What can you do with this information?

This information is important because with understanding comes clarity, and with clarity, the power to master your nerves.

Here are some tips to overcome your fear or atleast hide it:

Breathing exercises: Helps you stay present and helps let body know that you are safe, (deactivating sympathetic nervous system)

Practice in front of a little audience: This could be your mother, father, sibling or best friend. The only way to truly get over a fear is by exposure. This could help with getting some exposure, which could lower the cortisol and epinephrine production when you actually have to present in front of a bigger and/or more serious audience.

Practice as much as you can: When you get very stressed and nervous and you have to present with a lack of practice. It might be hard to focus on remembering all the words or improvising. If you practiced so much, not only your lines but also your body language, you’ll likely present almost the exact same way, since it will go automatically. This will help be more confident, which will cause you to have less fear. And it will help you to hide those nerves.

A good tip on practicing body languages is to film yourself while practicing and try to improve 1 or 2 things every time. You can also do it in front of a mirror. If you have difficulty finding tips on your body language, you can look up a video with tips or compare your video to speeches and presentations.

It’s important to understand, though, that there is no one-tip-fits-all solution.

You might always be nervous, which is all right and human.

Hopefully these tips can help you handle the nerves and hide them, but I think that our friend Mark Twain said it best, when he said: “There are two types of speakers: those that are nervous and those that are liars.”.